Dialogue

2001 Intro|                 length or tension of the strings from which they were emitted,
2002 Intro|                  in a Pythagorean dream, stripped of qualitative difference
2003 Intro|                 it was then cut into two strips, which were bent into an
2004 Intro|               Hearing is the effect of a stroke which is transmitted through
2005 Timae|               there is a second class of structures which are also natural,
2006 Timae|                 food, and the more these struggled against one another the
2007 Timae|                 we can by education, and studies, and learning, to avoid
2008 Timae|            convulsive efforts, and often stumbles through awkwardness, and
2009 Timae|                making the soul dull, and stupid, and forgetful, engender
2010 Intro|                the language of Spinoza, ‘sub specie aeternitatis,’ they
2011 Intro|                 also capable of infinite subdivision—a wonder and also a puzzle
2012 Intro|                  a bright colour. A more subdued light, on mingling with
2013 Intro|             which reason is incapable of subduing; like the Pythagoreans he
2014 Intro|             subjective, and involved the subjectivity of all knowledge. ‘Non in
2015 Timae|           slavery those who were not yet subjugated, and generously liberated
2016 Intro|             abrupt, and in some passages sublime. But Plato has not the same
2017 Intro|                 two rival powers and the submersion of both of them? And how
2018 Intro|          medicine, and very unwilling to submit to the purgative treatment
2019 Intro|           failure because they admire no subsequent progress.~The charge of
2020 Timae|               and this was caused by the subsidence of the island.~I have told
2021 Timae|                   thus of necessity then subsisting, which the creator of the
2022 Intro|                  and chaos are gradually succeeded by stability and order.
2023 Timae|                 them and formed soft and succulent flesh. As for the sinews,
2024 Intro|         attributed in the Timaeus to the suddenness of our sensations—the first
2025 Intro|            guiltless of their faults and sufferings.~Between the ideal and the
2026 Timae|                  in like manner the soul suffers much evil from the body.
2027 Timae|                 to be no more than would suffice for men of simple life;
2028 Intro|               bitterness and gall, and a suffusion of bilious colours when
2029 Intro|             further study of the Timaeus suggests some after-thoughts which
2030 Intro|                  own explanation did not suit all phenomena; and the simpler
2031 Intro|                  in atoms, as well as in suns and stars; in the human
2032 Timae|                  be a receptacle for the superfluous meat and drink, and formed
2033 Intro|                  this region, as ancient superstition told, were to be found intimations
2034 Intro|                pieces, old age and death supervene.~As in the Republic, Plato
2035 Intro|          mathematical anticipations, are supplemented by desultory remarks on
2036 Intro|                 necessity has often been supported by physical facts.~The Timaeus
2037 Timae|                formed and implanted as a supporter to the heart the lung, which
2038 Timae|                 words ‘this’ and ‘that,’ supposing ourselves to signify something
2039 Intro|               arrived for the slower and surer path of the modern inductive
2040 Timae|                 and following the breath surges up within, fire and breath
2041 Intro|            length of the original. It is surprising that this voluminous work
2042 Timae|                 after the Deluge, of the survival of Deucalion and Pyrrha;
2043 Intro|             annihilated time might still survive. He admits indeed that our
2044 Intro|                by too great rigidity and susceptibility to heat and cold, he contrived
2045 Intro|                  is a further reason for suspecting it; for he could easily ‘
2046 Timae|              truly; for the divine power suspended the head and root of us
2047 Intro|                  so great as to create a suspicion that they are derived from
2048 Intro|               places. This tradition was sustained by the great authority of
2049 Timae|                of newly-formed phlegm is sweat and tears, and includes
2050 Timae|                   accompanied by copious sweats. And oftentimes when the
2051 Intro|                 Straits of Gibraltar, in Sweden or in Palestine. It mattered
2052 Intro|           industry of certain French and Swedish writers, who delighted in
2053 Intro|          sometimes relieved by boils and swellings, but when detained, and
2054 Intro|               comes, the inhabitants are swept by the rivers into the sea.
2055 Timae|                 a similar principle; and swift and slow sounds, which appear
2056 Timae|                  the same, which was the swiftest, appeared to follow it most
2057 Intro|                  tissue it is for a time swollen with these impurities, but
2058 Intro|                 and water. The former is symbolized in the Hellenic tale of
2059 Intro|            unknown cause; or of justice, symbolizing the law of compensation;
2060 Intro|              mythology, which he uses as symbols or translates into figures
2061 Intro|                 and the beautiful is the symmetrical, and there is no greater
2062 Intro|                  is no greater or fairer symmetry than that of body and soul,
2063 Intro|             century before Christ (Plut. Symp. Quaest; Plac. Phil.); (
2064 Intro|              exhibits in the Phaedrus or Symposium. Nothing can exceed the
2065 Timae|             internal flame;—to all which symptoms some physician perhaps,
2066 Intro|               philosophers. So much of a syncretist is Plato, though not after
2067 Intro|                 that this antithesis and synthesis pervades all art and nature,
2068 Intro|                 to them. And as in other systems of theology and philosophy,
2069 Timae|             become corrupted, first they taint the blood itself, and then
2070 Timae|            rather on our way thither, we talked the matter over, and he
2071 Intro|               and learnt their appointed tasks, and began to move, the
2072 Intro|               found a translator (Thomas Taylor, a kindred spirit, who was
2073 Intro|          Pythagorean society. He was the teacher of Simmias and Cebes, who
2074 Intro|            priori assumptions of ancient teachers, on their confusion of facts
2075 Intro|              them—the (Greek), as it was technically termed—began at once to
2076 Intro|                  first class belongs the teleological theory of creation. Whether
2077 Intro|                 observation, such as the telescope or microscope; the great
2078 Intro|           describe as a state of heat or temperature in the interior of the body.
2079 Timae|             waters, or was caught in the tempest borne on the air, and the
2080 Intro|               phenomena of life, further tended to perplex them. Plato’s
2081 Intro|             whether we must not admit of tendencies and marks of design also,
2082 Timae|                 so twists back the great tendons and the sinews which are
2083 Timae|                 towards which the motion tends below, but things which
2084 Intro|               creation he is necessarily tentative and uncertain. And there
2085 Intro|                on the other hand, in the Tenth Book of the Laws he passes
2086 Intro|               that Plato would have been terrified if he could have foreseen
2087 Intro|                might there be reflected, terrifying the belly with the elements
2088 Intro|                defined this intermediate territory which lies somewhere between
2089 Timae|               sight; and so might strike terror into the desires, when,
2090 Timae|                  again reappear, sending terrors and intimations of the future
2091 Timae|                 air, then the fever is a tertian; when of earth, which is
2092 Intro|                 he who should attempt to test the truth of this by experiment,
2093 Intro|                  as from the Old and New Testament; also from the tales of
2094 Intro|            especially incapable of being tested by experiment. (Compare
2095 Timae|               palate, and is, as the law testifies, a substance dear to the
2096 Intro|            raptures to the limits of the tetrachord or of the flute.~The Hesiodic
2097 Intro|               the equilateral pyramid or tetrahedron; secondly, the octahedron;
2098 Intro|           generous depth’ of Parmenides (Theaet.).~There is a similarity
2099 Intro|                  philosopher residing at Thebes in the latter half of the
2100 Timae|           consequence of these habits of theirs they had their front-legs
2101 Timae|             recovered from oblivion, and thenceforward we will speak of them as
2102 Timae|                  the origin of the name (thepmos, Kepma). Now, the opposite
2103      | thereby
2104      | therein
2105 Timae|                 is within us and related thereto they made to flow through
2106 Intro|                rather affirms the modern thesis that nature abhors a vacuum,
2107 Intro|            combination of solid bone and thick flesh been consistent with
2108 Timae|                  life within them in the thickest and most solid flesh. So
2109 Intro|                 were formed intervals of thirds, 3:2, of fourths, 4:3, and
2110 Timae|            mingled and the black is more thoroughly mixed with them. Flame-colour (
2111 Intro|                   or how we may supply a thread of connexion to his ideas
2112 Timae|                 to it because it is like threads of leather, but rendered
2113 Timae|               which it is akin, it comes threatening and invading, and diffusing
2114 Intro|                the model of the body—the threefold division into the rational,
2115 Timae|                  instruments used in the threshing of corn, the close and heavy
2116 Intro|               harm in repeating twice or thrice’ (Laws) what is important
2117 Timae|           overladen with fruit, has many throes, and also obtains many pleasures
2118 Intro|         elucidation of it.~More light is thrown upon the Timaeus by a comparison
2119 Intro|               they attributed to chance (Thucyd.). But their conception
2120 Intro|               and alimentary fluids, the tide became still more violent
2121 Intro|         abstraction, and purged from any tincture of sense. Soon an inner
2122 Intro|                 for which there is not a tittle of evidence, and which are
2123 Timae|                 would not cease from his toils and transformations until
2124 Intro|                  a thing of yesterday or tomorrow, but an ‘eternal now.’ To
2125 Intro|             compared with the hesitating tone of the Timaeus, he confesses
2126 Intro|               was unprovided with common tools; or to some poet or musician,
2127 Intro|              together in this place. The topics which I propose briefly
2128 Intro|            unimportant question which is touched upon by Martin, whether
2129 Timae|             Deucalion and Pyrrha; and he traced the genealogy of their descendants,
2130 Intro|                 which enters through the trachea.~The part of the soul which
2131 Intro|              compounded out of both, the track becomes fainter and we can
2132 Intro|                 On the whole this little tract faithfully reflects the
2133 Intro|              science of the ancients was traditional, descending through many
2134 Intro|              world, sometimes that he is transcendent. And having no distinction
2135 Intro|                 he scales the heights of transcendentalism, in the latter part he treats
2136 Timae|                  in this way by frequent transfers from one to the other he
2137 Timae|                ignorant of all, whom the transformers did not think any longer
2138 Timae|              made impure by all sorts of transgression; and instead of the subtle
2139 Intro|                 one another, and are too transient to be detained by any one
2140 Intro|              into kinds; all of them are transitional, and arise out of the decomposition
2141 Intro|              which he uses as symbols or translates into figures of speech.
2142 Intro|            through the medium of a Latin translation, were profoundly affected
2143 Intro|                 work should have found a translator (Thomas Taylor, a kindred
2144 Intro|              gymnastics. The doctrine of transmigration is still held by him, as
2145 Intro|                 are easily moved readily transmit the motion to the mind;
2146 Timae|                 of gold and to be always transmuting one form into all the rest;—
2147 Intro|                  sides of the object are transposed. In a concave mirror the
2148 Intro|                 inverted, but this is no transposition.~These are the second causes
2149 Timae|                  and become contrary and transverse and every way diverse in
2150 Intro|      missionaries and the experiences of travellers and of colonists.~The various
2151 Intro|                  speaks afterwards, when treating of sensation, but they may
2152 Intro| transcendentalism, in the latter part he treats in a bald and superficial
2153 Timae|                the name of shivering and trembling is given; and the whole
2154 Intro|              what is this but a literary trick by which Plato sets off
2155 Timae|         regardless of the appointed time tries to subdue them by medicine,
2156 Intro|                of them, besides the two ‘Trilogies’ which he has expressly
2157 Intro|               his writings the Christian Trinity, the Word, the Church, the
2158 Timae|                 danger, she defeated and triumphed over the invaders, and preserved
2159 Timae|               they were to be like hired troops, receiving pay for keeping
2160 Timae|               reason of the factions and troubles which he found stirring
2161 Timae|                 or rather, if we are not troubling you, will you briefly recapitulate
2162 Intro|               and Asia? Like the tale of Troy, or the legend of the Ten
2163 Timae|                back to the beginning and try to speak of each thing and
2164 Timae|             order then that it might not tumble about among the high and
2165 Timae|                 sends forth all sorts of tumours; but when imprisoned within,
2166 Timae|                by the help of reason the turbulent and irrational mob of later
2167 Intro|                  the eternal nature, she turns for innocent recreation
2168 Intro|                  used as a model for the twelvefold division of the Zodiac.~
2169 Timae|                 a seventh part which was twenty-seven times the first (27). After
2170 Timae|                him who united them, were twisted by them in all sorts of
2171 Timae|               and swells them up, and so twists back the great tendons and
2172 Intro|              some poet or musician, like Tynnichus (Ion), obliged to accommodate
2173 Intro|             remain, but they have become types in nature, forms of men,
2174 Intro|                 of the Fates and Furies, typifying the fixed order or the extraordinary
2175 Intro|                  or too short is at once ugly and unserviceable, and the
2176 Intro|                 Megarianism by a sort of ultra-Megarianism, which discovers contradictions
2177 Timae|                  ought to be lasting and unalterable, and, as far as their nature
2178 Timae|                 more than was absolutely unavoidable, they gave to the mortal
2179 Intro|            negatives. He sings of ‘Being unbegotten and imperishable, unmoved
2180 Timae|                 and when filled with the unclean matter, swells and festers,
2181 Timae|                species of time, which we unconsciously but wrongly transfer to
2182 Timae|                  the body which is still uncorrupted. Sometimes, when the bitter
2183 Intro|              even the four elements were undefined; the fields of knowledge
2184 Timae|               conflicts which all cities undergo, and I should like to hear
2185 Timae|              external air, and rolled up underneath the skin, where it took
2186 Timae|                that I should be right in undertaking so great and difficult a
2187 Intro|                  times, following Bacon, undervalue or disparage the speculations
2188 Timae|                  not leave unexamined or undetermined, nor must we affirm too
2189 Intro|             leaving the better principle undisturbed to advise quietly for the
2190 Timae|                 evil being would wish to undo that which is harmonious
2191 Timae|                of equipoise, but swaying unevenly hither and thither, was
2192 Timae|                  which we must not leave unexamined or undetermined, nor must
2193 Intro|         necessity, or measure, or limit. Unexpected events, of which the cause
2194 Intro|                  which has been hitherto unexplored by him. But he has not as
2195 Intro|                  that Solon did leave an unfinished Egyptian poem’ (Plato).
2196 Timae|             outline, the subject may not unfitly be summed up as follows.~
2197 Intro|               world of ideas began to be unfolded, more absorbing, more overpowering,
2198 Timae|             children, and when remaining unfruitful long beyond its proper time,
2199 Intro|               suddenly clipped, he walks ungracefully and with difficulty upon
2200 Intro|              phenomena would have passed unheeded before his eyes, like fair
2201 Intro|                is an interesting and not unimportant question which is touched
2202 Timae|         filtration through rock; this is unique in kind, and has both a
2203 Intro|              inverse proportion to their universality—the element which is the
2204 Intro|                eternal is not merely the unlimited in time but the truest of
2205 Intro|              become undone, they in turn unloose the bonds of the soul; and
2206 Intro|              showing the fancifulness or unmeaningness of some of his reasons.
2207 Timae|                  so they leave the earth unmelted and undissolved; but particles
2208 Timae|                  they grow like.~Now all unmixed and primary bodies are produced
2209 Intro|             unbegotten and imperishable, unmoved and never-ending, which
2210 Timae|               and water and air, and the unnatural excess or defect of these,
2211 Intro|                  the human frame remains unobserved. And diseases arise from
2212 Timae|                these self-existent ideas unperceived by sense, and apprehended
2213 Timae|               from without when they are unprepared, they decompose them, and
2214 Intro|               which have been barren and unproductive? We might as well maintain
2215 Intro|                 his hands because he was unprovided with common tools; or to
2216 Timae|                  of a mighty power which unprovoked made an expedition against
2217 Timae|                 or in great pain, in his unreasonable eagerness to attain the
2218 Timae|                  who were cowards or led unrighteous lives may with reason be
2219 Intro|              mode of proceeding would be unsatisfactory, because we have no reason
2220 Intro|               light. When this desire is unsatisfied the man is over-mastered
2221 Intro|                 the cursory glance of an unscientific person. He knows that the
2222 Intro|                short is at once ugly and unserviceable, and the same is true if
2223 Timae|                  force the reluctant and unsociable nature of the other into
2224 Timae|                leg too long, or which is unsymmetrical in some other respect, is
2225 Intro|                 in both, and it would be untrue to say that the Greek, any
2226 Timae|                 our bodies and make them unwieldy because difficult to move;
2227 Timae|             saviour out of a strange and unwonted enquiry, and to bring us
2228 Timae|                 thus made the whole body upright. When a man is always occupied
2229 Intro|                of logic and rhetoric may usurp the place of reason and
2230 Intro|                things which are upon the utmost limit of human intelligence,
2231 Intro|           America. It helped to form the Utopia of Sir Thomas More and the
2232 Intro|                  human mind, seeking for Utopias or inventing them, was glad
2233 Intro|                   whom God placed in the uttermost parts of the world in return
2234 Timae|               sees or the words which he utters; the ancient saying is very
2235 Intro|            Parmenides contrasts with the vacuity of the thought which he
2236 Intro|                 human body is not a mere vagary, but is a natural result
2237 Intro|            between two cube numbers. The vagueness of his language does not
2238 Intro|               Bockh and Zeller, or, with Valentine Rose and Schaarschmidt,
2239 Timae|                the rest in greatness and valour. For these histories tell
2240 Intro|                  M. Martin has written a valuable dissertation on the opinions
2241 Intro|             difference or of concomitant variations, by the use of which he
2242 Timae|                 air in the veins, having variegated colours and bitter properties,
2243 Intro|           through the pores, although it variegates the body, generating diverse
2244 Intro|             through the person. In their vaster conceptions of Chaos, Erebus,
2245 Intro|                  takes away or drops the veil of mythology, and presents
2246 Intro|                speaking in the person of Velleius the Epicurean, he severely
2247 Intro|                 that ‘being’ is only the verb of existence, the copula,
2248 Timae|            result of my thoughts; and my verdict is that being and space
2249 Timae|                is imperceptible and vice versa. On the other hand the impression
2250 Intro|                 had generally written in verse; the prose writers, like
2251 Intro|              perhaps originated in a few verses of II Esdras, it has become
2252 Intro|              from a single original. The version is very faithful, and is
2253 Timae|                  and that hearing is the vibration of this blow, which begins
2254 Intro|               aperture through which the vibrations of sound pass. But that
2255 Intro|            manner the soul is often made vicious by the influence of bodily
2256 Intro|                was himself too often the victim of them, impressive admonitions
2257 Timae|                 are and dwell with their victors, and from being many become
2258 Timae|           mistaken, may claim a friendly victory. Then let us choose two
2259 Intro|             which Plato has gathered his views of the relations of the
2260 Intro|               not, like Kant, attempt to vindicate for men a freedom out of
2261 Timae|               But true and exact reason, vindicating the nature of true being,
2262 Intro|                  Philolaus magnifies the virtues of particular numbers, especially
2263 Timae|             maladies that may occur more virulent than those already mentioned.
2264 Timae|                  of them, both those who visibly appear in their revolutions
2265 Timae|                having bodies fastened by vital chains, and learnt their
2266 Timae|                thereby; for they are too volatile to be detained in any such
2267 Intro|                  is surprising that this voluminous work should have found a
2268 Intro|                  involuntary rather than voluntary. Like other writers on this
2269 Intro|               goddess, so likely to have votaries. And there you dwelt as
2270 Timae|              regarded by the intelligent votary of the Muses as given by
2271 Intro|               closely connected with the voyages of the early navigators,
2272 Intro|                  benefits which even the vulgar can appreciate. God gave
2273 Timae|                 relating to the true and waking reality of nature, we have
2274 Intro|                  nor feet, with which to walk. All that he did was done
2275 Timae|               placed the midriff to be a wall of partition between them.
2276 Timae|             night of misfortune all your warlike men in a body sank into
2277 Timae|         particles at the other exit grow warmer, the hotter air inclining
2278 Timae|                the help of this internal warmth would form a very tolerable
2279 Timae|                 side of enemy to stir up wars and disorders in the body,
2280 Intro|               health.~But when the flesh wastes and returns into the veins
2281 Intro|                 the commands of the soul watching in the citadel are conveyed
2282 Timae|               And next, they ordered the water-courses of the body in a manner
2283 Intro|                in the order in which our wayward fancy has led us to describe
2284 Timae|              laws, and who is himself in wealth and rank the equal of any
2285 Timae|                  pursuits; moreover, the weapons which they carry are shields
2286 Intro|               immortality, and you shall weave together the mortal and
2287 Timae|                the belly into the veins, weaving together a network of fire
2288 Intro|               are defending Plato.~After weighing one against the other all
2289 Intro|                the two abstract ideas of weight and extension, which are
2290 Intro|               dialogues. The language is weighty, abrupt, and in some passages
2291 Timae|             restored—these they took and welded them together, not with
2292 Intro|                in North, South, East, or West; in the Islands of the Blest;
2293 Timae|                  earth he kneaded it and wetted it with marrow, and after
2294 Intro|            sifting pure smooth earth and wetting it with marrow. It was then
2295 Timae|                on like the rotation of a wheel, because there can be no
2296      | whereby
2297 Timae|                 principal end of speech, whereto it most contributes. Moreover,
2298 Timae|                three places of the soul, whichever they may severally assail,
2299 Timae|                  and while they are in a whirl cause them to dash against
2300 Timae|                 are there, they set them whirling about one another, and while
2301 Timae|                  he must be mortal every whit, because he has cherished
2302 Timae|                  under the idea that the wicked voluntarily do wrong is
2303 Intro|                them. The thoughts of men widened to receive experience; at
2304 Intro|               only may create a deep and widespread enthusiasm, how the forms
2305 Timae|               Socrates; for he would not willingly have been absent from this
2306 Intro|               their seeming probability, win the confidence of the reader.
2307 Intro|                  world. The apparatus of winds and waters is contemptuously
2308 Intro|             heavens, and then, as if his wings were suddenly clipped, he
2309 Timae|             vessel, which, moving like a winnowing machine, scattered far away
2310 Timae|                  there are two kinds; to wit, madness and ignorance.
2311 Timae|                 which experience gradual withdrawings and emptyings of their nature,
2312 Intro|            ministers. The supreme God is withdrawn from the world and returns
2313 Timae|        Hermocrates, I am assured by many witnesses that his genius and education
2314 Timae|                 to be forgotten? for all wives and children were to be
2315 Intro|               your city did bravely, and won renown over the whole earth.
2316 Timae|         discourse must be woven, just as wood is the material of the carpenter,
2317 Intro|       Pythagorean philosophers and their wordy strife. He finds nothing
2318 Timae|            endowed with mind and are the workers of things fair and good,
2319 Intro|              have created them. Into the workings of this eternal mind or
2320 Intro|                 protracted when they are worn out. And he who, instead
2321 Intro|           patched and made up again like worn-out garments, and retain only
2322 Intro|             Timaeus returns at last to a worship of the heavens, and that
2323 Intro|                 to their patients of the worthlessness of drugs. For we ourselves
2324 Timae|                by disease or produced by wounds, is painful and violent;
2325 Intro|               parable in which Plato has wrapped up his conception of the
2326 Timae|          contracting every part makes it wrinkled and rough; and twisting
2327 Intro|                wholly given up. He could write in one style, but not in
2328 Intro|                 It is true that Proclus, writing in the fifth century after
2329 Intro|                can we believe that Solon wrote a poem upon the theme which
2330 Intro|               all hearing, all knowing’ (Xenophanes).~Under the influence of
2331 Intro|                human faculties seemed to yearn for enlargement. We know
2332 Timae|                the son of Helios, having yoked the steeds in his father’
2333 Intro|            Egyptian priest, in which the youthfulness of Hellas is contrasted
2334 Intro|                fragments, with Bockh and Zeller, or, with Valentine Rose